존 케이지 음악에 있어서 주역(周易)

I-Ching in John Cage's Music

For better understanding of John Cage, we have tried to approach his music with the alternative perspective, away form the conventional western way. We found that there were three philosophical sources which constituted the basis of his music. At first, Cage got inspired from the Indian philosophy and Buddhism that “Art is the imitation of nature in her manner of operation”. And then from the Zen practice, he came to realize that the music should be freed from the personal intentions and memories of the composer so that it's proper sounds be produced within the “totality of possibilities”. At last he discovered that the I-Ching was the perfect instrument for making the music which he idealized in its divine nature. He perfectly comprehended the principles of the chance operation of I-Ching and applied them to the composition of music; that is, starting from the elements of Yin and Yang representing sounds and silence, to the sophisticated manifestation of hexagram in the form of structural sound events.